question about what notes to play over a chord

[adammazza]

Hi,

I have a question in regards to what notes to play over a specific chord. A little background, I've been working on walking basslines by playing quarter note arpeggios over songs out of the Real Book. I realize this should be used as a guide for improving, but I'm not at that stage yet . Most chord symbols I understand what to *safely* play over them, but I have a question about a few. For example E7#9. If this was simply E7, I know to play R,3,5,b7. What would be a good starting point for E7#9 though? It seems like I want R,b7,#9. I would also guess that I need the 3rd since that would specify maj/min. Should I just leave out the 5th and play R,3,b7,#9?

Thanks,

Adam

[chicagodoubler]

9, 11, and 13 are called extensions. To develop an ear for these sounds, make sure to run the complete arp-
E7#9= e g#b d gnatural

NEVER omit the third.

Your exercise is a great idea, but music lives outside of four notes per bar.

Do you have a good teacher?

Are you transcribing basslines?

Be aware that walking basslines are MUCH more complicated, and in many ways, less complicated. You can get a whole lot of milage out of 1-5-8. Just check out Ron Carter!

[adammazza]

Thank You. Yes I do have a good teacher, between lessons right now which is why this question came up .

I haven't really been transcribing many basslines yet, been spending time practicing arpeggios over standards (All the Things You Are is the current song).

At first I start doing just half notes with 1-5, now arpeggios and the inversions on the arpeggios. I usually practice my arpeggios over 2 octaves, but that doesn't hit the 9,11,13th. Thanks for making me realize that I should probably be practicing 1-3-5-7-8-9-11-13.

Adam

[DocBop]

You can treat chord extensions as optional if you like, so on the 7+9 just play your dominant arpeggio. You could treat it as an approach note to the 3rd 1, #2, 3, 5. Also doing this puts the #2 on a weak beat so works fine. You also have to think about where you are going next. Most likely this is a V chord and it will resolve down by Circle of Fifths. So what you should be thinking about setting up the next chord or avoid a tone you might want to save. If you do like I did 1,#2,3,5 then down whole-step you have root of next chord. Tension is good on V chords to setup the release in the moving down. So I might do something like 1, #2, 3, #4, then root of next chord would be a half-step down.

What to do is just isolate two or three chords from a progression and sit and play with the possibilities. Chord tones, approach notes, line moving up chord to chord, line moving down chord to chord. Starting line on the 5th instead of the root or 3rd, 7th. Then take the various idea you come up with and try to work them into a line play the whole song. For me this the the fun part of practicing, isolating some chords and working out different way to navigate thru them. This is also how you build your bass vocabulary. Jazz is full of II-V-I's in major and minor sit and experiment with Walking thru II-V-I's and play Real Book tunes will become a snap.

[adammazza]

Thanks. After I posted this, I actually cracked open Mark Levine's Jazz Encyclopedia. There are whole chapters devoted to II-V-I's. It also goes on to discuss the relationships between the 7th and the 3rd of the next chord (the 3rd will be a flattened 7th of the previous) this definitely helps me with approach notes.

Adam